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Northampton County is focusing on clean up after Hurricane Isaias made its way through the Roanoke-Chowan area late Monday night into Tuesday morning. No injuries or loss of life were reported.

“Overall here in Northampton, we’ve really been blessed,” said Tony Burnette, who is serving as the county’s Temporary Emergency Management Coordinator. “I’m thankful for no loss of life here in Northampton.”

Burnette told the News Herald on Tuesday morning that the damage assessment is still ongoing, but the majority of the storm damage appeared to be trees down on power lines. He had also received some sporadic reports of property damage.

Additionally, a tornado—though not yet confirmed by the National Weather Service—appears to have touched down right outside of Conway. The News Herald spoke to the property owner, Albert Vann, who reported trees down and some damage to storage tanks and farm shelters.

Burnette said the NCDOT was working to remove fallen trees throughout the county.

“It’s an ongoing process,” he added.

Several power outages had been reported throughout the county but Dominion Energy and Roanoke Electric Cooperative were working to restore electricity after the storm passed. As of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dominion reported 1,875 customers still without power and Roanoke Electric with 678 powerless customers.

Northampton County opened an emergency shelter at 6 p.m. Monday evening at the Cultural and Wellness Center in Jackson, and Burnette reported that they did have a few occupants take up shelter there. Due to precautions stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the county had urged citizens to use the shelter as a “last resort.”

He thanked all the local partners who joined forces to keep the county safe during the storm: the Northampton Sheriff’s Office, DSS personnel, Health Department workers, EMS dispatch, and the fire departments.

Burnette noted this was just the first big hurricane of the season which was far from over, and he thanked Northampton residents for being prepared for Isaias.

“If you don’t have a hurricane kit, get a hurricane kit and be prepared if we do happen to have another,” he added.